Every artist has their muses. For Édouard Manet (1832-1883), one of thoses muses was family. But the home life of the French painter was complicated, even by today’s standards. Now, nearly 150 years since his passing, Manet: A Model Family at the Gardner Museum is the first exhibition to explore Manet through the lens of the complex familial relationships between and amongst the artist and his sitters, shedding new light on the life and masterpieces of the “father of modernism.”

Mary Ellen Mark, one of the great American photojournalists, frequently turned her lens to those who had been pushed to the margins of society. The exhibition Mary Ellen Mark: A Seattle Family, 1983–2014 invites visitors to empathize with the struggles and triumphs of a multi-racial American family, and to feel the trust and inspiration that blossomed between Erin Blackwell and Mary Ellen Mark—a relationship that transcended that of artist and collaborator.